Burial in Israel planned for 7 children killed in Brooklyn fire

Mary Altaffer / AP

New York's Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro, right, speaks to reporters during a news conference in front of the scene of a fatal fire in the Brooklyn borough of New York, Saturday, March 21, 2015. The fire raged through the residence early Saturday, killing seven children and leaving two other people in critical condition, authorities said.(AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

New York's Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro, right, speaks to reporters during a news conference in front of the scene of a fatal fire in the Brooklyn borough of New York, Saturday, March 21, 2015. The fire raged through the residence early Saturday, killing seven children and leaving two other people in critical condition, authorities said.(AP Photo/Mary Altaffer) (Mary Altaffer / AP)

Michael BalsamoAssociated Press

Seven children die in Brooklyn fire.

NEW YORK —An ultra-Orthodox Jewish community shattered by the deaths of seven siblings in a house fire carried out the funerals Sunday before the children's bodies were to be flown to Israel for burial.

The children's mother, Gayle Sassoon, and 14-year-old sister, Siporah, were injured in the Saturday morning blaze in Brooklyn and remained in critical condition Sunday.

The funeral service began with prayers in Hebrew, and shrieks could be heard through speakers that broadcast it to several hundred people who gathered inside and on the streets.

"They were so pure," the children's father, Gabi Sassoon, said during a eulogy Sunday. "My wife, she came out fighting."

"My children were unbelievable. They were the best," he said as mourners cried in the streets. "You have to love them as parents. You have to love them as teachers."

Investigators believe a hot plate left on a kitchen counter caused the blaze that sent flames up the stairs, trapping the children in their second-floor bedrooms as they slept.

Authorities identified the Sasoon family victims as girls Eliane, 16, Rivkah, 11 and Sara, 6, and boys David, 12, Yeshua, 10, Moshe, 8 and Yaakob, 5. Their father — a religious education instructor — was in Manhattan at a Shabbaton, an educational celebration held on a Sabbath.

Daniel Bar of Israel's religion ministry said the children's bodies will arrive in Israel on Monday.

"They were beautiful little children," said a tearful neighbor Rose Insel, remembering how she rewarded the kids with lollipops after they voluntarily shoveled her walk. "It's unbelievable. It doesn't seem possible."

Across the street from the Sassoon home, 89-year-old Izzy Abade said she'd watched Gayle Sassoon grow up, then her children playing.

"They used to play right across the street, riding bikes, playing in the backyard, playing ball."

Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro, who broke down at one point as he spoke about the blaze, said it was the city's worst in recent memory.

The hot plate was left on in the Sassoon home for the Sabbath, which lasts from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday. Many religious Jews use one to keep food warm in order to obey the traditional prohibition on use of fire on the holy day as well as work in all forms, including turning on appliances. The Sassoons' hot plate apparently malfunctioned, investigators said.

"We cannot use fire on the Sabbath," neighbor Dalia Hen, 51, noted. "The only alternative is to use a hot plate. I guess it's something we should be more aware of — wake up at night and check up on it."

State Assemblyman Dov Hikind, who represents the Midwood neighborhood where the Sassoon family lives, said he's hearing from people concerned about using hot plates on the Sabbath. He said he called his daughter, who has six children and uses a hot plate, and told her, "You've got to stop using that."

Neighbor Karen Rosenblatt said she called 911 after seeing flames and smoke bellowing from the Bedford Avenue home. Her husband said he heard "what seemed like a young girl scream, `Help me! Help me!"' she said.

Firefighters arrived less than four minutes after the 911 call and discovered the badly burned and distraught mother pleading for help. When they broke in the door, firefighters encountered a hopeless situation — a raging fire that had already spread through the kitchen, dining room, common hall, stairway leading upstairs and the rear bedrooms.